food, glorious food...

Mum & I spend today preparing some of the food for Christmas...normally we arrive at Babcia's on Christmas Eve & just help with the last minute stuff, but as we're staying home this year, we have to do it all.

Today we made Uszka (little ears) which are pastry filled with mushrooms & rice, to be served on Christmas eve in clear beetroot broth. They're a traditional polish Christmas dish, kind of fiddly to make, but totally worth it.


& while Mum cooked tomato sauce (for the fish patties), I baked some of Babcia's apple cake.


I'm not sure if apple cake is also a polish tradition, but it is definitely a family tradition....along with baked cheesecake, which will be cooked in the next few days.


There are still some dishes to be made before the day...bigos, potato salad, barszcz (clear beetroot broth), the cheesecake...yum!

beautiful new art...

A little while ago a won a giveaway on the Epheriell Designs blog, run by the lovely Jess.

My prize was a gift voucher for either Kelsi Doscher Photography or Iké Designs, both run by Kelsi. I had a hard time deciding what to get, as both shops are full of lovely things. Eventually I chose a beautiful print called Intricacies & this morning it arrived :)




isn't it gorgeous?

it's December!

already. This year seems to have gone by so fast. Nearly christmas time.

This year will be a bit different for us...we're staying home for christmas. Usually we head to Adelaide to see family, but this year we're not going down until after christmas. It'll be kind of weird, but nice I think.

raindrops...

Falling rain is such a beautiful sound, especially when you're safely tucked up inside. :)

After our record-breaking November heat wave, it's finally cooled down here....& it's raining too.
I really hope we don't break any more heat wave records this summer, perhaps such a hot spring means we'll have a mild summer.....well, I can dream.

leaf adventures

I was very excited today to discover that my fallen leaf pendant has been included in the current jewelry gift guide on etsy. I've never had a piece in any of the gift guides before & I'm very, very happy :)



The same pendant has also been included in this beautiful treasury by pastelpetals which made the front page of etsy.

round & round

Just a quick random post....I played around with some textures & edited two ferris wheel photos tonight. I'm really pleased with both, so I've uploaded this one here (& the other to flickr). I'm trying to blog more often this month, so I thought I should start early :)

This was taken in Melbourne...I walked down to the river behind (or perhaps it's next to) federation square & there was this ferris wheel, so I took a photo of it.

Right, enough rambling...hoping to post again sooner, rather than later :)

Melbourne workshops...

I'm back from Melbourne, tired but happy. Really loved the workshops I did with Hadar Jacobson. In the first (on Friday) we made a hollow bead/pendant/earrings (those are my earrings, in the photo above) & then we learnt Hadar's technique for getting the beautiful 'satin' finish.



The second workshop included both Saturday & Sunday. On saturday, we learnt to mix Hadar's copper clay (you buy it in powder form) before using some to make a piece to be combined with pmc. The above photo shows my silver & copper pendant. I made the copper ring on saturday & it, along with the other copper (or bronze) pieces was fired over night. On sunday I added pmc to make the outer silver ring, which I them fired with a torch, before finishing it in the same way as the earrings.


The pendant above combines bronze & copper clay...a bronze base, with a deep texture (from one of my stamps), which are then filled with copped clay. This piece still needs sanding & polishing.


I'm really pleased with the pieces I made & more importantly, I learnt a lot. I have plans for many new pieces over the coming weeks/months, so watch this space :)

leaving on a jet plane...

My suitcase is finally packed & I *think* I'm ready to go. Heading for Adelaide tomorrow, before flying to Melbourne on Thursday. Spending friday, saturday & sunday at the workshop, then I have a couple of days to myself before flying home on wednesday.

Do you like my new bag? I'm very proud 'cos I made it myself....with lots of help from Mum. It's big enough to fit my sketch book, as well as my purse & stuff. I even made the button, out of polymer clay.


So I'm off...I won't be blogging till I get back, but I'll have lots of photos to share when I get home. Wish me luck :)

rain, rain, river flow...

Last week we had about 5 inches of rain (mostly on Tuesday) in the Southern Flinders, so the Rocky River has water in it. Mostly the river is dry, although in days gone by there were market gardens on its banks.

Anyway, on Monday we (my sisters & I, along with Archie) went for a walk to see the river & then on Wednesday we headed down again, this time with Mum along. We also went for a bit of a wade...
...the water was freezing, although our feet went kinda numb after a while, so we didn't notice any more.



& then the girls developed mysterious super powers....

...or just struck a silly pose :)

you can see more photos on Archie's blog

10 days to go...

...until I fly to Melbourne. *Eeek* it's getting so close, all my tickets/accommodation are organised, but I still have heaps of packing to do...clothes, workshop tools/materials, camera, computer...hopefully not weighing more than the airline baggage allowance.

Meanwhile, I've just finished re-stringing this necklace. The lampwork beads in it are my very first, from the workshops I did to learn bead-making. I had strung them temporarily & was always 'meaning' to do it properly, but it somehow never happened...until my tempory necklace broke (the beads were to heavy for it)...

...now I can wear it again, yay :)

Etsy weekend deals...

this weekend some of the talented people from the DUST team are participating in the Etsy weekend deals promotion. Everyone participating is offering % off their prices, from 5% to 50%. You can find all the participants on the Dust blog.

I am also participating...10% off everything at jewelflyt.etsy.com

I finally got some photography done & listed a few pieces:

soft rose

fresh glass

forest dreams

& a sneak peak at the next few things waiting to be listed on etsy:

Happy Birthday to me...

It was my birthday was last Saturday & I had an awesome day. My brothers drew this amazing card for me, there are lots of different characters, including Mario, Tintin, Monkey & even Archie.

Mum baked me a cherry cheesecake & decorated it with dark chocolate...this shot was taken after we all had a piece...it was very, very delicious.


My sisters organised my presents...all beautiful handmade goodies from etsy...

these beautiful cotton bracelets from easternsky

this leather brooch from tmStudioDesigns

& three prints from matouenpeluche

aren't I an extremely lucky girl?!

spring blooms...

Spring has begun & our garden is full of flowers. Actually, it's been kinda like spring here for a while (the almond blossom photos are from early August). Thought I'd share some blossoms with you all, some from our garden & some from around town.